The ex-con who was fatally stabbed after he attacked a New York City bodega employee shared a video online weeks earlier that threatened anyone who messed with “my girls.”
The 8-second clip on Austin Simon’s Instagram account shows a little girl getting her hair curled while computerized narration says, “You come at me, you might get away.
“But you touch her, I promise I’m the last thing you’ll see before you talk to God,” the narrator adds.
Text added to the April 28 video says, “I’m doing straight life for this one wit np” — shorthand for “no problem” — and the hashtags “#MyBabyGirl” and “#BeautifulKaliyah.”
“I don’t play bout my girls,” Simon wrote in a caption, using the online alias “handsome_millzy.”
The identity of the child was unclear Tuesday.
Simon, 35, was stabbed to death inside the Blue Moon convenience store at 3422 Broadway shortly after 11 p.m. July 1 after his girlfriend allegedly accused the clerk of snatching a bag of chips from her 10-year-old daughter’s hand when the girlfriend’s food-stamps debit card was rejected as payment.
Simon stormed behind the camera and was caught on surveillance video pushing the store clerk, 61-year-old Jose Alba, against a wall of merchandise and trying to lead him away before the older man fought back by plunging a knife into Simon’s neck.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has come under fire for filing a second-degree murder charge against Alba, with Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials saying Alba appeared to have acted in self-defense.
On Tuesday, members of the United Bodegas of America held a closed-door meeting with Bragg during which the embattled DA said he was still investigating and might drop the case against Alba, according to the group’s spokesman.
“I asked, ‘Do the possibilities exist that you will drop these charges?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely,’ ” spokesman Fernando Mateo said.
A Bragg rep later said the meeting “centered on how to keep bodega owners and workers safe,” adding, “We welcomed the opportunity to discuss how we can work together to promote safety on our streets and in our workplaces, and look forward to continuing these conversations.”
